Counting calories does it really work?

There are many good resources online for tracking calories in.  You can get a very reasonable estimate as long as you are willing to be 'detailed' about what you eat (tracking portion sizes closely, etc.).  There are also many calculators that can help give you at least a starting point to estimate calories out.  Use those estimates and try to build your diet so that you create a roughly 500-1000 cal/day deficit.  This should lead to about 1-2lbs of weight loss per week.

If, after perhaps a month, you are hitting your expected daily deficit but not seeing the expected trend in weight (either losing too much or not enough), then your calories out estimate is likley off.  Adjust your calories in further.  Remember that both are estimates.  Calories in can usually be estimated fairly good as long as you pay attention to details and measure carefully (if you do not, you can easily be off by quite a bit here, too).  Calories out is a bit more of a 'ballpark' estimate--sometimes they will also be quite good, other times they may be off fairly considerably.

BT has a resource in the logs.  There are also sites like fitday, thedailyplate, etc.--many with apps, as well.  I can't really comment on the best to use as I haven't counted calories for several years now.

Edit:  My assumptions above were that you wanted to lose weight.  If you want to maintain (or gain?) weight, you would still go about it the same way--just changing your targeted daily caloric surplus/deficit.

GREAT info Thank you!

I am indeed in it for the weight-loss.  I have been more active than ever over the past year, and eating "Better" too, however, the pounds are not dropping.  I will definitely have to measure and track my intake.  Right now I'm just making better choices and probably eating way too much..

Yes it does work

Calculating calories in takes time but its really worth it.

I have been using the Bodybugg (the one you see the contestants on the Biggest Loser show wear) and it tells you the calories burned during the day. Very good tool and it keeps you accountable!

Yes, I have found that it does work. I used the calorie tracker on livestrong.com, and found it easy to use. What JohnnyKay describes is exactly my experience. It helped me to lose close to 50 lbs.

For calories in you can get good estimates from many foods, and then you just have to wing it for some others. Just be honest with yourself.

For calories out I would advise against using the calculator that comes with some watches and exercise bikes. For running it's fairly easy to estimate based on your weight, as pace doesn't make much of a difference. It'll likely be somewhere in the *rough* area of 100 cal/mile. For biking it's much harder to estimate calories/mile, since so much depends on the power that you're putting out, terrain, etc. If you have a reasonable estimate of your power during a ride (I get this from my trainer speed), then it's not hard to estimate calories. For swimming it's even more of a crapshoot, due to differences in swim efficiency. I tend to estimate 100 cal/400yd.

Go on line and find a print out of standard foods/amounts/calories.  I had a paper copies 10 pages long I carried around with me, in the car , in the lunch bag, in my desk at work.  I left them everywhere so I had the resource when I needed it.  I liked the paper version, I am not a gadget guy.

Measure your food and count the calories before you eat them.

Now here is the tricky part.  Write it down before you eat it.  Get a post it note, I stuck one on my badge.  When I wanted to eat something, I figured out how many calories and then wrote it down on the post it.

Account for your energy expended.  BMR plug in 2500 and 100 calories for every mile of exercise on foot.  hard biking or swimming 1000 cal per hour.

At the end of the day make a tally.  Did you eat more than you burned?  Do this three days running where you calc out a net deficiency.  DO you lose weight?  Start shaving calories or upping the exercise.

Shaving calories is loads easier than running ten miles.

This low tech method helped me lose 100 lbs. 8 years ago. and I have kept it off.

Oh yeah.

Low fat cottage cheese is your friend.  Go look at the nutrition panel on the side of a jug. 

I just got the 4S, can you recommend a good app for tracking ??

myfitnesspal.com

Great app, great website.

Yes, counting calories works wonders as well as limiting sugar intake, carb intake, and ensuring enough proteins and essential fats.

When I lost 100lbs, I used Calorie King and a spreadsheet to do the manual work. I know it's not as easy as an app or something, but it kept me honest because I had to learn what I was eating and look it up and log it. I was 'more' responsible for what I ate that way. Now, I know pretty much off the top of my head what contains what in my diet.